CD Reviews

NEW ORLEANS GOLDEN BOY!!!!

Ken Rogers | Easley, SC USA | 10/08/1998

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Jimmy Clanton was a true teen age star, this cd reflects almost all of his musical accomplishments. The cuts are clean and clear but a few are taken from records (you can hear the pops and clicks and hiss) on "Just A Dream", Letter To An Angel" and "Go Jimmy Go". The import version of this album is superior in quality, but the notes on this version are better."

So glad Jimmy Clanton finally a "greatest hits" CD out

Ken Rogers | 07/04/1998

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I've been looking for a quality CD with Jimmy's hit songs on it since CDs came out. He was one of my favorite performers in the very early 60s. My only disappointment with this CD is that "Little Boy In Love" (one of my favorites) was not included on the CD; otherwise I am overjoyed with it!"

One Of The Originators Of Swamp Pop

Ken Rogers | 09/16/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This 1998 release from Music Club can't be faulted for not providing all 12 of his hit singles because ... well .... it doesn't lay claim to being his "best of" or "greatest hits." What is here, which does include 9 of those hits along with 3 of the B-sides, is presented with fairly clean sound, certainly good enough to please all but the most ardent of audiophiles, and you also get three pages of background notes by noted music reviewer Bill Dahl.

Born on September 2, 1940 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Jimmy was playing in local groups when someone from Ace Records "discovered" him as he cut a demo record at the New Orleans studio of Cosimo Matassa. What they were playing was, in essence, what would become known as Swamp Pop, something indigenous to the Acadian (or Cajun) region of southern Louisiana and nearby portions of Texas which merged Blues and Country with the traditional local French musical heritage.

In late summer 1958, under the billing Jimmy Clanton And His Rockets, his own Just A Dream surged to # 1 R&B/# 4 Billboard Pop Hot 100 b/w You Aim To Please, which he also wrote in conjunction with Matassa. Later that fall, and now billed to simply Jimmy Clanton, A Letter To An Angel topped out at # 25 Hot 100 while the flipside, A Part Of Me, made both the R&B (# 28) and Hot 100 (# 38). Both were also composed by Clanton and Matassa.

Almost a full year would then go by without a hit before My Own True Love, with its melody being Tara's Theme from Gone With The Wind, reached # 33 Hot 100 in late summer b/w Little Boy In Love (not here). Then, in December, Go, Jimmy, Go, written by the Pomus/Shuman team, began its climb to # 5 Hot 100/# 19 R&B in early 1960 b/w I Trusted You, penned by Clanton/Matassa.

Later in the spring of 1960 he took a Sedaka/Greenfield tune, Another Sleepless Night, to # 22 Hot 100 b/w I'm Gonna Try, which Jimmy wrote on his own. That was followed in late summer by the minor double-sided hit Come Back (# 63) and Wait (# 91), neither of which is included here. When, early in 1961, another Sedaka/Greenfield composition, What Am I Gonna Do? could only manage a modest # 50 b/w If I, it appeared that the bloom might be off the rose.

But after another long absence from the charts he came back strong in late summer 1962 with a Greenfield/Teller tune called Venus In Blue Jeans, and saw this rise to a solid # 7 Hot 100 b/w Highway Bound. But that turned out to be a last gasp, so to speak, as Darkest Street In Town, also written by Greenfield/Keller, struggled to reach # 77 Hot 100 in January 1963 b/w Dreams Of A Fool.

y the following year the British Invasion began and there would be no further hits for Jimmy until late 1969 when Curly barely made the Hot 100, settling at # 97 b/w I'll Never Forget Your Love, for the Laurie label. Neither side is here.

From 1972 to 1976 Jimmy would work as a DJ far from Swamp Pop country in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.